Department for Education

Schools: Crown Dependencies

Lord Lexden: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to give schools in the Crown Dependencies access to the Department for Education's Barred List Checking Service Sign-in portal.

Baroness Berridge: The regulations that are used to determine the eligibility for access to the Department for Education's Barred List Checking Service apply to England only.The School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009 are for maintained schools and can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/2680/regulation/24/made.The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 are for academies, free schools and alternative provision academies, and can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3283/pdfs/uksi_20143283_en.pdf.The Non-Maintained Special Schools (England) Regulations 2015 and The Further Education (Providers of Education) (England) Regulations 2006 can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/728/contents/made and https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/3199/contents/made.The Department has no plans to give schools in the Crown Dependencies access to the replacement service for Teacher’s Pension Online, the Children’s Barred List Status Check. Teacher’s Pensions Online hosted the standalone barred list check service until 31 March 2021. The replacement service transferred to the Teaching Regulation Agency on 1 April 2021. Schools in the Crown Dependencies should contact the Disclosure and Barring Service directly to obtain an Enhanced plus Barred List information check for those employed in regulated activity.

Askham Bryan College: Closures

Lord Inglewood: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of education provision in Cumbria, following the closure of Askham Bryan College’s Newton Rigg campus; whether they have made any legal assessment of the implications of the closure of that institution; and what discussions they have had with the Further Education Commissioner regarding its closure.

Baroness Berridge: A comprehensive analysis of local provision needs for Newton Rigg and the surrounding area was undertaken in 2020 by the Further Education Commissioner and the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The core objective of this analysis was to establish if there was a need for college provision within the general vicinity of Newton Rigg campus. It considered the location of neighbouring further education colleges in relation to travel to learn options and identified that the majority of enrolments could be accommodated at other statutory further education institutions. Where gaps in provision were identified, alternative arrangements for the next academic year have been introduced to ensure continuity of delivery after Newton Rigg closes.If further evidence of gaps in provision are highlighted as a result of the closure of Newton Rigg in support of local authorities’ statutory duty to secure provision in an area, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will consider requests to fill a gap in provision. Where this cannot be met through negotiation with good existing providers the requirements are put out to tender through open competition.We routinely consider the legal implications of decisions that are made.Officials from the Education and Skills Funding Agency continue to work closely with the Further Education Commissioner’s team with regard to the closure of Newton Rigg.

Department of Health and Social Care

General Practitioners

The Marquess of Lothian: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards their 2019 target to increase GP numbers by 6,000 by 2024–25; and whether they expect to meet this target.

Lord Bethell: NHS England and Health Education England are working with the profession to increase the general practice workforce in England. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors are leaving the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. As of March 2021, there were 536 more full time equivalent (FTE) doctors and 2,237 more FTE primary care professionals, such as physiotherapists, social prescribers and pharmacists, working in general practice compared to March 2019. The highest ever number of doctors accepted a place in general practitioner specialty training in 2020/21 and from 2021, the Government has committed to increasing the number of training places to 4,000 a year.

Travel: Coronavirus

Lord Naseby: To ask Her Majesty's Government why the Cayman Islands are not on the list of 'green' countries for entering England.

Lord Bethell: Decisions to place countries, including Cayman Islands, on the ‘green list’ are taken by Ministers informed by evidence including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s analysis as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variant. The advice, evidence and methodology which informs these decisions relates to on-going development of Government policy and therefore cannot be published at this time.

Travel: Coronavirus

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expectto place (1) Mauritius, (2) Turks and Caicos Islands, and (3) Bermuda, onto the 'green list' for tourists using direct flights from the United Kingdom, given the low local infection rates from COVID-19 in these destinations.

Lord Bethell: Decisions to place countries, including Mauritius, Turks and Caicos Islands and Bermuda on the ‘green list’ are taken by Ministers informed by evidence including the Joint Biosecurity Centre’s analysis, as well as other relevant information about the risk of the spread of variant. The advice, evidence and methodology which informs these decisions relates to on-going development of Government policy and therefore cannot be published at this time.

Travel: Quarantine

Baroness Bull: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people (1) are currently in the COVID-19 hotel quarantine system, and (2) have been through that system since its introduction.

Lord Bethell: As of 5 May, 7,647 people were quarantined in a managed quarantine hotel. Since the beginning of the service on 15 February, approximately 35,605 have quarantined in a managed hotel.

Hospices

Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to announce improvements in funding for hospices; and if so, when.

Lord Bethell: The Government recognises the importance of palliative and end of life care services, including hospices. The sector has played a vital role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected by the provision of up to £280 million of additional funding from March 2020 to March 2021 to secure capacity and free up acute care as part of the National Health Service’s response. Additionally, the Government has either funded directly or committed to reimburse all known personal protective equipment requirements since the start of the pandemic until March 2022. As independent, charitable organisations, hospices receive some statutory funding mainly from clinical commissioning groups for providing services in their local area. However, alongside NHS England and NHS Improvement, we proactively engage with the whole sector on an ongoing basis to understand the issues they face and their views of upcoming needs and challenges.

Travel: Quarantine

Baroness Bull: To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many applications for medical exemptions from the COVID-19 hotel quarantine system they have received for which supporting medical evidence was provided, and (2) how many of these applications for exemptions supported by medical evidence were (a) approved, and (b) rejected.

Lord Bethell: The information is not currently held in the format requested.

Department for Work and Pensions

Bernard Matthews

Lord Sikka: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Pension Protection Fund’s rescue of the employee pension schemes operated by Bernard Matthews Limited has resulted in loss of any pension rights of the members of those schemes.

Baroness Stedman-Scott: The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) is a scheme, set up by the Labour government and continued by all successive governments, that pays compensation to members of eligible Defined Benefit pension schemes, whose sponsoring employer has become insolvent and where there are insufficient funds in the scheme to secure benefits at or above the level of PPF compensation. It was never intended to replicate in full the pension rights of schemes that, as a result of their employer’s insolvency, do not have sufficient assets to secure the pension benefits initially promised to their members. The usage of the PPF, when the Bernard Matthews Pension Fund transferred to the PPF did not result in any capping of members benefits.

Kickstart Scheme: Job Creation

Baroness Sherlock: To ask Her Majesty's Government how many new jobs have been created by the Kickstart Scheme, broken down by the region of England in which the job is located.

Baroness Stedman-Scott: As of the 6th May 2021, over 108,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply for through the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Kickstart Scheme. This includes over 20,000 jobs started by young people. There have been over 200,000 jobs approved by the scheme. We are unable at present to provide data on the number of approved jobs by region, as at that stage in the process we do not hold information about the exact location of a job, only the head office of the employer. We do hold regional information on jobs made available for young people to apply for and for placements started, which is provided below. The tables below show these figures split by location, the data presented has been rounded according to DWP statistical rounding convention. Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme. LocationJobs  AdvertisedTotal Jobs StartedEast Midlands7,2701,120East of England8,2401,320London22,7404,500North East4,560960North West13,5602,840South East12,3202,350South West7,6701,440West Midlands10,0301,850Yorkshire and The Humber8,3101,580Figures may not add up to provided totals due to rounding. 1,000 non-grant funded jobs are included in Jobs Advertised but not included under Jobs Started. Total jobs started includes those which have been completed or ended early.